This invention relates to a seal for sealing an opening in a component of a means of transport, in particular for sealing an opening in an aircraft airfoil, wing or tail units.
Seals for component openings in components, in particular manhole covers and other inspection ports, are known from the state of the art in many variants. Such component openings frequently have circular or elliptical cross-sectional geometries with large cross-sectional areas. There through, e.g., an inspection of the component can be performed from the inside, either manually or by a person crawling inside with the whole body (manhole).
Known openings comprise amongst other things an inner cover and an outer cover for spanning the component opening. To seal the component opening, the inner cover is placed on the component opening from the inside of the component, whereas the outer cover is placed on the component opening from the outside of the component. In order to obtain a fixed seating of the thus formed seal over the component opening, the outer cover and the inner cover are tightly pulled together by means of appropriate connecting members, e.g., in the shape of screw or clamp connections or the like. In addition, on the top side or underside of the component, at the component opening, peripheral recesses or cutouts can be incorporated for centering the outer cover or the inner cover inside the component and thus making sealing of the component opening easier as well as improving the sealing effect and ensuring high quality of the aerodynamic surface.
In order to obturate the component opening completely, e.g., for seals for tank systems, airfoil tanks or the like, it is frequently required to arrange additional sealing means between the outer cover and the inner cover and the component top side or component underside. This compensates for possible unevenness in the surface of the component or the sealing covers which would otherwise impair effective sealing of the component opening by the seal. In general, the sealing means can be omitted only if both the surface of the component and the surfaces of the outer cover or the inner cover matching therewith have high surface quality and are thus substantially free of unevenness. Such high surface quality can be obtained, e.g., by grinding or polishing of the corresponding sealing surfaces at the component opening or the sealing covers.
However, producing such sealing components of such high surface quality that additional sealing means are substantially unnecessary requires considerably increased manufacturing expenditure.